Born: 30 October 1917 in Ste Cécile les Vignes, France
Died: 13 February 2005, Nîmes, France
GP's contested: 82 (1950 till 1964)
Victories: 14
Monaco wins: 2
Fastest lap: 1
1938 |
5th Pau GP (Bugatti) |
1939 |
1st GP des Frontières at Chimay (Bugatti) |
1946 |
Retired from a race at Bois de Boulogne due to fuel starvation, found to be caused by rat droppings, hence the nickname Le Petoulet (The Rat Dropping) |
1947 |
1st Avignon GP (Amilcar) |
1948 |
1st Perpignan and Montlhéry. Injured in Swiss GP. |
1949 |
1st Circuit des Ramparts at Angoulème (Simca) |
1950 |
2 F1 GP (Gordini), 1st non-title race at Geneva |
1951 |
4 F1 GP (Gordini), 1st non-title races at Albi, Cadours |
1952 |
6 F1 GP (1 Ecurie Rosier, 5 Gordini), 5th France, 6th Holland |
1953 |
8 F1 GP (Gordini), 11th, 5th Belgium, Italy, 6th Holland. 1st non-title race at Cadours. Racing Champion of France |
1954 |
8 F1 GP (1 Ecurie Rosier, 7 Ferrari), 4th WC |
|
2nd Belgium, 3rd Germany, 4th Argentina, 5th Britain, Italy. 1st non-title Buenos Aires GP (Ferrari), Caen, Rouen. 2nd at Syracuse and Bari. 1st Le Mans 24hrs (Ferrari) with Gonzalez |
1955 |
6 F1 GP (Ferrari), 4th. 1st Monaco, shared 2nd and 3rd in Argentina, 6th Belgium. 1st Messina 10hrs with Castellotti |
1956 |
5 F1 GP (4 Vanwall, 1 Bugatti), 1st non-title Agadir, Dakar and Swedish GPs |
1957 |
3 F1 GP (Ferrari), shared 4th GB, 5th Monaco. |
1958 |
9 F1 GP (1 Scuderia Centro Sud, 1 BRM, 7 RRC Walker), 7th. 1st Monaco, 3rd Germany. 1st non-title races at Pau and Clermont-Ferrand |
1959 |
8 F1 GP (Cooper-Climax), 5th. 2nd US, 3rd Monaco, 4th Germany, Portugal, 5th Britain. 1st non-title race at Pau. 2nd at Le Mans 24hrs (Aston Martin) |
1960 |
6 F1 GP (1 RRC Walker, 4 Scuderia Centro Sud, 1 Aston Martin). shared 3rd Argentina. |
|
Received French Legion d'Honneur |
1961 |
5 F1 GP (Scuderia Serenissima) |
1962 |
6 F1 GP (Rob Walker - Lotus-Climax), 1st non-title race at Pau |
1963 |
3 F1 GP (2 Parnell, 1 Scuderia Centro Sud) |
1964 |
5 F1 GP (BRM), 16th, 5th Germany |
1965 |
Raced at Le Mans (Ford GT). Retired |
Born on October 30, 1917 in Ste Cécile-les-Vignes in the French department of Vaucluse, Maurice Trintignant remained faithful to his last day to the region in which he was born. For most of his life he has been living in Vergèze, a village of which, for many years, he was the Mayor. There he owns vineyards and, up to the eighties, he produced his own wine called “Le Pétoulet”. This was the nickname given to him by one of France’s most brilliant drivers of all times, Jean-Pierre Wimille, on a day shortly after the war, when Maurice was trying to make his old Bugatti run properly and exclaimed “des pétoules !” when he found rats droppings in the carburettor. For many of us, he has remained “Pétoulet”.
Enthusiasm for racing was in the family. His elder brother, Louis (father of movie star Jean-Louis Trintignant who also competed in some touring car races) had been racing in the early thirties and was killed in a race accident. His Bugatti was eventually repaired and Maurice entered it for the Pau Grand Prix of 1938 and, in the following year, for the Grand Prix des Frontières, on the Belgian Chimay circuit, which he won.
After the war, the Bugatti which had been hidden under a pile of hay in a barn, was made race worthy again, but Maurice soon realised that the car was now outclassed. His big chance came in 1947, when he borrowed a 15 years old six-cylinder Amilcar and won a small car race in Avignon. This earned him a place in the Simca-Gordini (later Gordini) team to which he remained faithful to the end of 1953, becoming Champion of France for 1952 and 1953. But in the later years, Maurice was not on friendly terms with his team mate Jean Behra and took up an offer from Ferrari with whom he remained until 1957 and for whom he won such important events as Le Mans in 1954 (sharing the wheel with Froilan Gonzales) and the Monaco Grand Prix of 1955.
Circuits like Monaco, with comparatively slow bends and narrow roads were the sort of circuit on which Trintignant reveled. He won the Monaco Grand Prix for a second time in 1958, driving a Cooper Climax and won the Pau GP three times with a Cooper car when it was run for Formula 2 and a fourth time, in 1962, with a Lotus when it was a Formula One race. This was his last big victory.
On faster circuits, he was fast and reliable and was therefore a much sought after driver for long distance sports car races. In 1954, in addition to winning Le Mans, he won the TT for Ferrari, co-driving with Mike Hawthorn and came 2nd with Gonzales again in the Monza 1000km race. In 1955, he won the Messina 10 Hours race, co-driving a Ferrari with Eugenio Castellotti and the Swedish GP for sports cars with Phil Hill as co-driver. With François Picard, he drove a Ferrari 250 GT into 2nd place in the Tour de France Auto and in 1959 he shared with Paul Frère the Aston Martin which finished 2nd at Le Mans, running to team orders, in the same lap as the winners Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby. He then flew to the United States to show that he was still fast enough to take 2nd place in the U.S. Grand Prix at the wheel of a Cooper Climax.
In the following years, Maurice continued to race successfully, the best proof of his undiminished skill being his 4th victory in Pau in 1962, a Formula One race that year. In his last two seasons, he drove a V-8 BRM which he had purchased from the factory and which he ran in selected events, ranging from Grand Prix to hill climbs. Privately owned cars are seldom competitive against works entries, but Maurice still enjoyed racing. Only the change of Formula in 1966, forced him into retirement at 48, but even now, at 78, he never says NO when a wheel is offered to him on the occasion of the celebration of historic events.
That Maurice enjoyed such a long career and lived so long and in great shape, the father of a 10 year old son, is a sort of miracle. In 1948, in the Swiss Grand Prix in which he drove a Simca-Gordini, he very nearly suffered the same fate as his elder brother and was declared “clinically dead” after a horrid crash on the dangerous Bremgarten Circuit. After nearly three weeks of coma, he fully recovered, but had another spectacular accident in the Comminges GP of the following year, in which his injuries were fortunately less serious. But this had no influence on his determination and right to the end of his career, he remained a fast and very reliable driver, which earned him altogether six times the title of French National Champion. But he was not only a good driver: he was a fair sportsman, a great gentleman and a reliable and estimated friend. |
1958 GP of Italy
1958 the Marseillaise with Princesse Grace and Prince Rainier
1959 GP Italy
1959 in Cooper Climax
In Cooper Climax in Monaco
|